Chapter 166: Settle the scores (2)

The Bloodmire Forest seemed like a living thing that breathed malice. The farther Malrik ventured, the denser the trees grew, their branches intertwining to form a black canopy that blocked even the faintest traces of daylight.

However, the battles Malrik and his army fought against those mindless creatures left a trail of destruction in their wake. Shattered trees, uprooted trunks, and wide gaps torn through the forest kept the canopy from closing overhead, leaving clear lines of sight despite the dense woods.

For the first half hour, their advance was little more than a bloody stroll.

Fenrir, the shadow wolf with Epic-rank potential, led the vanguard. He didn’t simply fight; he wiped out everything in his path.

When a pack of stone-scaled Morveth boars charged at him, he neither stopped nor tried to dodge. He met them head-on like a black meteor. His claws crushed their scales as if they were dry clay, while his massive fangs tore into their throats in a blur of movement, leaving them no chance to squeal.

On the right flank, the Spider Queen toyed with her prey. Her grotesque hybrid body moved with unsettling fluidity as she climbed the massive trunks and spun acidic green webs in hard-to-reach places.

Any Morveth unlucky enough to touch those strands slowly melted away, its screams echoing through the forest. The Queen would then approach with her cold, humanlike features and drive one of her bony limbs into its skull, ending its suffering.

The superiority of an Epic bloodline over lesser bloodlines was undeniable, and the gap only grew wider as their power increased.

This made Malrik wonder what would happen if he managed to evolve them beyond the Epic bloodline. How much stronger would they become?

Behind these two monsters, waves of shadow wolves, black spiders, and the other souls dealt with the remaining enemies.

As for Malrik, he walked at the center of the formation, his pace steady.

He used no skills and spent no additional mana, apart from what his sub-Epic souls needed to maintain their physical forms. He relied entirely on his physical stats and the [Broken Yard] spear to kill anything that targeted him or blocked his path.

An Awakened-rank Morveth resembling a black panther lunged from the trees, aiming for Malrik’s neck from his blind spot.

Malrik did not even turn his head.

He raised his right hand smoothly and swept the spear through a swift half-circle, bringing its tip in line with the lunging panther. The gray blade pierced the beast’s chest mid-air, using the momentum of its own leap against it, before exiting through its back to pin it to a nearby tree trunk.

Malrik pulled his spear free and let the corpse fall, dark blood spilling onto the ground. He continued forward with his silent army, pressing deeper into the forest.

But as the first hour passed and they crossed a ridge deeper in the forest, the atmosphere began to change.

The blood left behind by Malrik’s army should have drawn in more frenzied beasts, yet an unnatural silence settled over the woods instead. The reckless attacks stopped, and no more packs charged blindly at them.

Malrik kept walking, his eyes sweeping the dense shadows around him.

Rustle...

A faint rustle came from high in the canopy.

Suddenly, it rained monsters.

Dozens of ape-like Morveth, with long arms, venomous claws, and glassy red eyes, hurled themselves from the upper branches.

The apes ignored Malrik, Fenrir, and the Spider Queen, instead targeting the ordinary shadow wolves in the rear ranks. They attacked in groups, trying to tear off their limbs and pin them to the ground.

At the same moment, the damp earth split open beneath Malrik’s spiders. Giant Awakened-rank earthworms burst from the ground with their jaws agape, ready to swallow the spiders whole or drag them underground.

"So, you’re finally taking this seriously?" Malrik murmured, a faint smile tugging at his lips.

"Good... I was looking for an opportunity like this."

More and more Morveth poured in from above and below. Within seconds, they outnumbered Malrik’s army of souls by more than two to one. The creature controlling them seemed to have chosen a war of attrition, using its overwhelming numbers to wear down its opponent.

Malrik wasn’t alarmed. If anything, he grew more interested.

As long as Malrik refrained from summoning any of his Fallen-rank souls, he had enough mana to keep fighting this way for a long time.

Since the creature controlling the Morveth showed no sign of revealing itself, Malrik decided to make use of the situation. It was a good opportunity to test a few ideas he’d wanted to try for some time without worrying about running out of mana mid-battle.

"Time to see if my calculations are correct."

Malrik raised his left hand, ready to test a skill he’d copied a long time ago but hadn’t used much since.

Heavy Domain

The moment the skill activated, an invisible field of dense mana spread across a wide area of the battlefield.

Gravity within the domain increased severalfold.

The ape-like Morveth were still falling from the branches when the sudden increase in gravity threw them off balance. Their trajectories shifted, sending them crashing into the ground among the shadow wolves far sooner than expected. Some stumbled on landing, while others struggled to get back up, their movements slower and heavier than before.

Even the giant earthworms emerging from underground were affected by the increased gravity. Raising their massive bodies and directing their attacks took twice as much effort, leaving them slower and easier to predict.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Malrik stepped back and whispered.

Shadow Clone

His shadow stretched across the damp soil, lengthening behind him into a mass of living darkness. Its surface rippled as humanoid figures emerged one after another. Soon, thirty exact copies of Malrik stood before him, their expressions cold and lifeless. At the same time, identical equipment formed around each of them: [Pride’s Burden] armor and a gray spear matching [Broken Yard].

Malrik felt a strange mental link connecting him to each clone. He could command them at will, certain they would obey without hesitation or fear of death, just like his undead souls.

He turned his attention to one of the shadow clones and issued a simple command.

Move. Attack.

The clone moved instantly.

Its figure blurred as it lunged forward, covering the distance in a flash. Before the monkey could react, the spear swept through the air in a swift arc.

The creature’s body split cleanly in two.

Malrik’s eyes narrowed slightly as he observed the result.

I was right.

Even without Lokris’s enhancement, the shadow clone’s physical attributes surpassed those of his original body.

Malrik was impressed by the skill’s potential and the many ways he could use it. But what impressed him most wasn’t the number of clones he could create, but their strength.

True, they were incapable of using active skills, but that was hardly an issue. Their stats more than compensated for the handicap.

The skill allowed him to create clones with 60% of the user’s stats. Since [Black Shroud] raised Malrik’s current stats to 200% of his base physical attributes, each clone effectively possessed 120% of his original base stats.

This confirmed Malrik’s theory.

The clones weren’t based on his unbuffed stats; they inherited 60% of his current attributes, including the boost from [Black Shroud].

Thirty clones, each with stats that surpassed his unenhanced body.

Malrik smiled a little wider. The result exceeded his expectations, and he began to see the possibilities this skill offered.

But such power came with a price.

The moment he activated the skill, ten percent of his total mana pool drained away.

Ten percent might seem trivial at first, but it was a significant cost given Malrik’s enormous mana reserves. Losing a tenth of his mana in a single activation was no small price, even if the skill’s benefits justified it.

Malrik put those thoughts aside and refocused on the battlefield.

Through his mental link with the shadow clones, he issued a single silent command.

Annihilate.

The thirty clones charged into battle. They moved in perfect sync, as though a single mind controlled all thirty bodies. They cut through the ape-like Morveth and giant earthworms, still slowed by the increased gravity of [Heavy Domain].

Gray spears rose and fell, shattering skulls and piercing flesh. The Morveth couldn’t match the clones’ speed or strength.

Malrik didn’t stay back and watch. Tightening his grip on the original [Broken Yard], he charged into the battle to join his souls and clones in breaking through the enemy ranks.

He drove his spear into a giant worm, cleaving the creature cleanly in half, then turned and smashed the butt of the weapon into an ape’s skull. As the creature fell, Malrik looked toward the dark depths of the forest, a faint, predatory smile on his face.

"Let’s see how many of your pawns you’re willing to sacrifice before you show yourself, you bastard."